Brrrr, I think winter has had a relapse. We had hail this afternoon, then snow, and the sky was clear enough when I headed for the barn that I could see fine to walk without using the flashlight. Had to scrape the windshield, and I am so glad for that scraper with the long handle and a brush on it for snow.
The note in the barn said a granny had come in and claimed one of the pens and seemed determined to stay. She had nothing showing but was standing there like she owned it. I got the 4 wheeler started and putt-putted out into the pasture. The ewes were getting to their feet and wandering away, leaving bare spots in the snow like a lot of polkadots all over one end of the field. One nervous ewe had a water bag showing so I brought all of them to the barn to sort them.
Of course, the warmth of the barn plus a couple of alfalfa bales to munch on gave them more incentive to stay than to go back out the door, so the sorting took a lot longer than it should have. Eventually the ewe I wanted to keep inside hopped into the pen with the granny and then it was easier to get the rest of them out the door which I closed behind them so they didn't make a u (ewe) turn and come right back. Some of them had already done that at least once while I was trying to isolate the one I wanted. Before I went out to open the corral gate, I checked their hind ends again with the flashlight to be sure I hadn't missed something.
Two ewes in a small pen with one of them about to deliver is just too crowded, so I had to move somebody. It seemed better to move the ewe who was about to deliver to keep all the birth fluids out of the small pen. Then I put the gate up to keep the granny inside it and let the mother-to-be stay loose in the open part of the barn where there is straw and plenty of room. Birth fluids out there are no problem, they just seem to disappear.
I watched her go to the other side of the barn and hop over the barrier board into an empty pen, and thought she might stay, but she came back to a spot just outside the pen with the granny and appeard to claim that as a birthing spot. She nibbled on the nearby hay bale and didn't seem to be in any hurry to deliver but kept looking to see where I was. So I left, and she probably has at least one lamb by now.
The ewes and lambs in the small pasture across the road were noisy so I walked over to shine my flashlight around to see why. A lot of the lambs are in the creep feeder, cozy and not anxious to leave, and their mothers are calling them. Lambs are answering and expect the ewes to come to them which they can't because of the boards on the creep feeder which only allow the ewes to put their heads through to eat.
The fog had moved in, making the moon light up about a quarter of the sky. I scraped the windshield and started home, but lack of heat from the defroster made the windshield fog up and freeze again almost before I got started, so I rolled down the window and stuck my head out and followed my tracks home. Mine were the only tracks on the road.
Yes, people in many parts of the world drink sheep milk and even make cheese from it. My hubby brought home some sheep cheese from Romania. People in undeveloped and developing countries all over the world use the milk from whatever kind of animals they have, goats, sheep and cattle being the most common, I believe. But I have heard about yak's milk, mare's milk, camel's milk, etc.
The past two nights have been slow in the lambing department, but the days have been making up for it. In two days about 20 ewes delivered lambs. Last night when I was at the barn I heard an anxious little voice, one of the "grafted" lambs that we thought had been accepted by a surrogate mother has apparently been rejected after all, and was alone in the bummer pen for it's own safety. The neighbor lady who lives down the road will take it and raise it on a bottle. She has already taken about a dozen lambs to raise this year, and she also raises calves.
I'll make a trip to the barn in a little while, there are bound to be more little surprises. This is the time of day when the lambs are getting ear tags, shots, etc, and are being moved to larger pens or out to the pasture.
It was raining lightly tonight and the ewes were busy, so I had plenty to do. The weanling calves in the back corral were watching me through the fence as I went out through the side door of the barn, through another pen and alleyway and out the back gate to the sheep pasture. (More on this story later).The side doors are really big doors, high enough to bring loads of hay inside, they're heavy but they open easier than the ones we usually use because the barn has not settled on that side. The doors that access the corral where the calves are now, bind on their roller tracks and are a real pain to open. That problem will get fixed only when they are impossible to open. There are way too many other gotta do's ahead of that project and not enough manpower.
New triplets were born tonight, unfortunately one appears not to have gotten up, and he still had a lot of the birth sac on him. His face was cleaned off (maybe not soon enough?). The siblings are fine. Another ewe had a nice big set of twins, just what we like. A third ewe, already in the barn just needed to be checked to make sure 2 lambs hadn't become 3, they hadn't and she appears to be finished. They are a bit on the small side and smaller lambs usually mean more lambs, there are only so many nutrients to be shared. I gave her some dry straw because her pen was pretty wet, she must have had them both in the pen or was very wet from the rain when she came inside. A soggy sheep is like a big sponge.
There is also a ewe who was loose in the barn, probably a granny who followed another ewe with newborns in from the pasture, she is pawing but not trying to push, I left a note that she might be having problems, maybe somebody missed seeing a water bag. She is about 4-5 years old. I can't remember what year we used purple ear tags and couldn't get close enough to read any numbers but I do remember when those purple tag ewes were lambing for the first time. They were a bunch of over the moon type of idiots, but now, with age and experience, they are nice and calm. Come to think of it, most of the first time moms and even some with a couple of years of experience are a bit nutty.
And now the cow story:
The calves are in the corral because they are being weaned. Most years the weaning goes quite smoothly, the cows and calves are separated in the corrals, the cows are taken back to the pasture, a hot fence is put up separating a space for the calves which are then moved back. The hot fence discourages them from rejoining their mothers, but they don't get too upset because they can see each other close by. A few days later another hot fence will be put up to increase the distance. Usually it works, but not this year because the fence is not hot enough and they went right back to their mommas.
Saturday the sorting/weaning began, Sunday it began again, and Monday was round 3. This time the calves were kept in the corral that we use to get from barn to pasture to bring in new lambs, and so we had to detour. It is the largest and most secure corral. The calves will be moved somewhere soon, where hopefully they will stay.
We keep track of the ewes and their new lambs with the all important barn chart. The left side of the page tells us the date and time, what pen they are in, what the ewe's ear tag color and number is, what she looks like, comments like "wild" or "good mother", and what her paint brand is. The right side of the page is all lamb information: things like face color, sex, if a normal or assisted birth, a column for eye problems and space for comments. I thought it would be interesting for you to see.
Sleeping a split shift is getting old but it won't last much longer at the rate those woolie ladies are popping out the babies. The drop band (ewes waiting to drop their lambs) is looking quite small. They usually lie down to deliver them, but occasionally one just kind of squats down, pushes a few times and drops the lamb on the ground. It certainly encourages the newborn to take a breath right away!
Tonight was windy, clear and nice moonlight, and I almost didn't need the flashlight once I got through the gates on my detour route and out away from the buildings. We have had enough rain to make quite a lot of mud in the alleyway, but the pasture is still quite dry, well, that's a relative term, it is not as wet, and there is hardly any mud there.
The calves are still in the corral, where I suspect they will stay since plan A failed twice, and plan B isn't too likely to happen as long as there is no emergency. There is a fence in a pasture about 2 miles down the road that needs to be fixed before plan B could happen and there is just no time to do it, so I think the calves will spend a few days eating their hay in the corral, then be moved in one direction and the cows in another. They were not so noisy last night.
If you were wondering about the triplet lamb from night before last, he wasn't alive when I found him. Probably the ewe didn't get up in time to clean the birth sac from his nose. Usually the lamb will give his head a vigorous shake and break the sac, but if it is tough or the lamb is weak sometimes that doesn't work, and the ewe gets up and starts cleaning it off. The sac is full of fluid, and sometimes the lamb gets some of it into his lungs and has to be treated for the resulting pneumonia. This one could have been a stillborn. We haven't had more than our usual death rate this season.
The ewe that was pawing in the barn got help to deliver twins. They were all sleeping when I got to the barn. The ewe didn't get up, so I know she is tired. She will be kept in the barn for some extra time to help her get over it, and she is also on antibiotics because of the assisted delivery. Non organic lambs there.
There is quite a network of organic producers nationwide. Lamb, beef, turkey, chickens, fruits and vegies. Even organic wool. Well, I have about 4 tons of organic wool stored in my hay shed, baled up in 600 pound bales, waiting to be sold in large volume to a buyer. It would make a lot of sweaters!
A link to Organic producers follows, given it's own line to make it more likely to work if you click on it.
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